The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-23
GOLD WATCHES ARE ooMmoN.
They Are Cheaper Than They Were,
and Everybody has One.

y
watch was regarded wealthy individual.
it is not SO now. Ia fact, nearly everybody
carries gold watch or the Senblance of one
nowadays, and owners of silver-cased
watches are just trifle ashamed to expose
them to view. The young man with gold
watch consults it frequently and ostenta-
tiously, while the owner of silver watch
slyly takes it from his pocket, holds it we'll
concealed in the palm of his hand and
glanceS at it under the shadow of his coat
"Are gold watches 50 much cheaper than
they were ten or dozen years ago that
everybody should have oneF' was asked last
week of down town-dealer in watches
''They are certainly cheaper" he an
swered but that is not the whole reason
why they are so much corihoner now than
they were few years ago. The truth of
the matter is that there is a regular boom
in gold watches, and it has been increasing
steadily for two or three years. There has
been marvellous increase in the demand,
and tee big watch companies are all as busy
as they can be turning out movements. The
casemakers can scarcely keep up with them.
A score of watch case factories are turning
out hundreds of cases every day, and yet
are behind their orders. l confess it puzzles
me TO conceive where they all go to, for
good watch will certainly last the purchaser
half his lifetime at least, and the ponula-
tion does not appear to me to be increasing
q tenth part as fast as these watches are
turned out.
''One thing that has doomed the watch
business, and especially the sale of gold
cases, is the watch club system. 1t has not
only sold hundreds of thousands of watches
in the peculiar manner in which the system
is conducted, but it has stirred up a spirit
of emulation and created a general desire to
own gold watch. Billy Smith is a carriage
trimmer and earns SIS week. He joins a
watch club and in month or two gers
$50 gold watch by paying 81 week. One
or two OF his companions become envious,
and having money saved, they go and buy
watches of little better grade than Billy's
at a higher cost. That is the way it works.
Watch clubs have done a great deal
for the business in this country and have
put gold watches into the vest pockets of
thousands who could never hope TO buy
them in any other way 1t is not like the
jnstalment business. The club maker or
dealer does not have to charge an exorbitant
price for the watches, and he runs little or
no risk, for he never lets watch go out of
his hauds without good security in the sig
nature of a responsible man, who signs an
agreement to assume the debt if the watch
holder skips before the last payment is
made. Thu dealer need not buy a watch
until every dollar is paid in for it by the
sixty or more members of the club.
Then he draws a slip of paper from
box, and the number upon it
designates the subscriber who is to
have the watch that week. He notifies the
lucky member that he has drawn a watch
and tells him to bring forth a surety and he
can carry it; but it remains the property of
the dealer until the last dollar has been
paid, and the drawer signs document to
that effect. The following week the cOllec-
tion of 81 is made from each member of the
club. and another drawing takes place
This business has assumed wonderful pro-
portions throughout the United States, and
now there is scarcely town without its
watch club. Rogues have taken advantage
of the scheme, but only in a small way, for
they cannot operate more than one week in
a place without being detec ed, aad then
the amount is too small to be attractive.
| believe the watch club business was
started in New Jersey. At all events, there
is where it fiourisheS most. There is one
jeweler in Newa k who has had a club bust
ness of nearly S15, 900 in one year, and this
year he thinks it will amount to at least
$4,000. He has five collectors and agents
who travel through the st tte get ing
subscribers and collecting the weekly in
stallments Railroad men are frequent sub
scribers, and the idea of owning gold
watch is extremely fascinating to every
prosperous country boy. Most of the watch
.,
and give as good value as the ordinary
watch dealer. The profit need not be large
TO satisfy the agent, for the sales are certain
and the money is paid in advance. heard
a small dealer say the other day, 81 have
sold forty-one gold watches this year on the
club plan Last year / sold four. That was
before | started in the club scheme.n That
is a fair illustration of the present boom in
watches.
1T amuses me to see young man with
new gold WATCH" said the dealer, consult
ing handsome box cased time-keeper. He
invariably carries it in the channels leather
pouch which it comes to him in, and is We y
careful to replace it in its covering when
ever he looks at it to learn the time which
is on the average about once in ten min
utes. After he has had the watch few
weeks the pouch is thrown away, and it is
dollars to dumplings that he does not open
the vatch twice day"
you say that watches are cheaper than
few years ago. How much cheaper are
thevF
''Well, if your watch cost $50 a dozen
years ago, you can buy better one for 800
to-day; and if it was 500 watch then, you
would have to pay $50 or S65 for it now.
Gold is just the same price per pennyweight
now, but movements are much cheaper.
Watch movements of standard American
make are away down. Without mentioning
any names, Will tell you that the move
ments in common use in gold watches Of
the cheapest grade are from $40 to S22
each, and some of the best movements are
worth at wholesale about $50 or $35. OF
course, you can get the finest American
movements up in the high figures yet, but
the best will not exceed $50, and you will
not see one of them in watch in year. A
watch costing $50 at retail will probably
have $40 movement in it.
1t wi ] be cased in solid fourteen karat
gold if the dealer is giving you the worth
of your money and the case will weigh from
forty-five to fifty pennyweights. That at
present rates viii leave him a good profit
with which he should be contented. Eighteen
karat gold will cost the dealer PC.
heavyweight more tnan fourteen karat,
and it will be no advantage to the wearer
of the watch"
is there not fraud in watch casesp
Yes, am sorry to say that there is.
Some unprincipled makers recently sent out
circulars offering to stamp cases with any
karat mark desired by the retailers, and
explaining what their regular marks
meant. They used such marks as 10 k
and IS kt,' IA k and IA KIT, ana each mark
meant a grossly different quality of case.
For instance. a case made of 10-karat gold
outside and 8-karat inside would be
marked IA k, while case constructed
of IA and 10-carat gold would be marked
Is k and a solid 14carat case would be